WATCHING THE SUNRISE OVER SEDONA
I closed my eyes for one inhale and exhale stood waiting and small sage on the wind reminding me that I am west again so many stars...
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Matt Smythe
Apr 17, 2015
THE DISTANCE BETWEEN
They’re like clockwork against the far bank. Two browns holding down the midge-buffet line. Rise…rise. Count three. Rise…rise. I know how...
Matt Smythe
Mar 9, 2015
WELCOME TO TEXAS
juxtaposed with an unlikely six hour jazz session on a straining static and likely below-the-radar bible-belt FM station and...
Matt Smythe
Jan 25, 2015
FOREVER. SUDDENLY.
on the road southeast of Ashton they climb on my left from a small fistfull of foothills out my half-open window standing then swallowed...
Matt Smythe
Dec 31, 2014
PEACE, REGARDLESS
I sing my wisdomless parable to the again changing season. To the birds’ hushed morning selves. To the gathering blanket of snow. To the...
Matt Smythe
Dec 29, 2014
WEST TO WATER
Midway from Chicago to LA it still hasn’t hit me. Sprawling canyon, salt flat, scrub brown and mountains crawl below. I carried on three...
Matt Smythe
Dec 4, 2014
SHOOTING DARTS IN ALASKA
When the day falls and the thin promise of neon rises, the brown liquor and beer go down easier, and with more truth, and there’s a vague...
Matt Smythe
Jul 22, 2014
DISPATCH FROM BEAVER ISLAND
From the Monday I received Kevin Morlock’s email inviting me to fly fish for carp on Beaver Island, to the Wednesday when the wheels of...
Matt Smythe
Mar 28, 2014
WHERE THE ROAD NARROWS
When we piled out into the dust and cool of the morning we were barely a quarter-mile from the end of the road. Unlike the sprawling...
Matt Smythe
Nov 26, 2013
THE THINGS WE CARRY
There was not much room for gear. A rod tube or two and small day pack each, plus the 5-gallon survival bucket, shotgun and a waterproof...
Matt Smythe
Jul 31, 2013
INHALING GIANTNESS
My journal holds a breadcrumb collection from the path I just traveled. Loosely penned notes, dates, times, temps, names. Hopeful...
Matt Smythe
Jul 15, 2013
OUT OF OFFICE
Electronic communications will stop somewhere short of my location for the next week. I’ll catch up with you when I get back on 7/23. Be...
Matt Smythe
Jun 6, 2013
SKIFF FULL-ON RUNNING
Skiff full-on running out of Islamorada open water pounding wave to wave in the backcountry fleeting bottom playing tag rising and...
Matt Smythe
Feb 4, 2013
1.6 MILES FROM LAGUARDIA
automatic traffic planes whine below city sound city life even in almost single-digit daylight still busy full moving this is Friday...
Matt Smythe
Dec 26, 2012
DAY 360
It’s five days shy of the new year. Holy. Crap. Not sure if it goes without saying, but every time the calendar reaches the last page and...
Matt Smythe
Sep 15, 2012
RISING IN THE DARK
We were only two full days into our 10 day trip, but I felt as though we’d been in camp for weeks. It could be the comfort and confidence...
Matt Smythe
Sep 11, 2012
ON ONE PARTICULARLY GOOD MORNING OUT WEST
I caught some particularly good fish. #gallery-2665-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-2665-1 .gallery-item { float: left;...
Matt Smythe
Aug 27, 2012
SINGING HAPPY BIRTHDAY IN A MISSISSIPPI JUKE
In grad school I was working on a poetry manuscript about the Mississippi Delta Blues. Two roadtrips from Virginia rolled me through...
Matt Smythe
Aug 14, 2012
FILM PROJECT: A DELIBERATE LIFE
We’re going back to Idaho. By “we” I mean Grant Taylor and me, plus a few others. To say that last year’s trip was a profound experience...
Matt Smythe
Jun 12, 2012
ON HAVING REACHED THE KEYS
Islamorada, I’m here and everything about you is foreign to me. Timeless retro hotel and diner and marina signs. Languid, saronged women...
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